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I feel hustled
I know this film is from last year, but I had to say something. This film does not hold up. For one, there are too many character contradictions throughout. Also, trying to throw in as many accents as possible in one hour and 34 minutes doesn’t make a movie more interesting, just more distracting.
The details of a film’s star rating in this blog generally go as follows:
3 Stars for beginning, middle, and end of the story
Star for casting/acting
Star for everything else- cinematography, soundtrack, etc.
Bonus Star 1- for marketing, release date, etc.
Bonus Star 2- for storyline fitting in with prequels/sequels, end credit scenes, etc.
If you would like to see a more detailed outline of how a film’s rating is created by me, there is a blog post on my dedicated page to just that. Also, I don’t do spoilers. I won’t mention any major plot twists or endings but I will hint at things and mention scenes that don’t give away any of those major points.
Let’s get into it.
Beginning: Half star. The only reason it got even that was because the beginning was the best part of the movie. It all went downhill from there. The main issue I have with the first part of The Hustle (2019) is how quickly Penny divulges that she is a con artist. It is unbelievable that she would almost immediately tell a stranger that kind of sensitive information.
Middle: Half star. There are so many elements I found to be unbelievable, contradictory, and overall it’s confusing. Penny was so good at grifting some of the men but then would completely fail with other people. Example, Penny with Gregor vs. Penny with Inspector Desjardins. Also, if Penny and Josephine know enough about other women in their line of work to know about Medusa, how would Penny not know other big-time names like Josephine? There’s a scene where Penny says she’s allergic to salad, which would have been funny, except earlier in the movie she orders…a salad. Then there is that sequence of Josephine teaching Penny about knife throwing and hurdling obstacles. It seems weird to me that they would take the time to add that in and then not have an action sequence later on.
The Lord of the Rings con was the only section of the movie that made any real sense to me. It is the only reason there is half a star here. Well, that and Rebel Wilson’s comedy abilities. She really carried the middle part of this film. A funny moment that didn’t come across as funny - the “those are decorative,” line from Josephine (Anne Hathaway's character). She was in her own house, she would have known those little ball things were decorative and not candy.
I also need to point out that they make fun of clichés throughout the movie but then when Penny and Josephine change their bet into who can seduce better...that’s a cliché. And, for being such a master grifter, Josephine never really catches onto how her tactics were making Thomas feel awkward, not like he wants to give her money.
End: Half star, for the plot twist and the plot twist only. First off, you’re telling me, with all of Josephine’s contacts in town, she couldn’t get a plane delayed? Then the plot twist happened and I decided, okay, maybe there was a plan for this movie. But then, you end with Josephine and Penny hiding in a busy town square. Pretty positive one of those twenty-ish people would have told the officers where you were hiding. The Hustle (2019) was back to being unbelievable.
Casting/Acting: Half Star. The saving grace for this movie was the relationship between Josephine, Inspector Desjardins, and Albert. Played by Anne Hathaway, Ingrid Oliver, and Nicholas Woodeson respectively. They created a trio that fed off each other’s energies and I did believe that they had been working together for years. Overall, Alex Sharp’s character, Thomas was the most believable throughout the film. The only time I felt Josephine was truly believable as a character was when she was angry for losing something, and she was a main character. For Rebel Wilson, it was not one of her funnier roles. She normally has me laughing my way through a movie but I only chuckled once or twice during this one.
Everything Else: Full star here. The costuming, sets, background music, were all great.
Bonus 1: No star. For a movie that was positioned to take on female empowerment, the most well thought out character was the young male.
Bonus 2: No star. They could do a sequel, but I don’t know if that would be a good idea.
Overall: This movie was a let down. The comedy was overpowered by contradictions. I have loved all the cast members in their other movies so I just don’t understand why this film fell so flat. I wonder now, if it would have played better if Penny wasn’t a con artist to begin with and Josephine had to teach her the tricks of the trade from scratch. I know a lot of the choices came from the fact that The Hustle (2019) is adapted from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), but in being an "adaptation" the team had opportunities to make changes such as that.
I almost always watch a movie twice that I’m going to review. One for viewing, one for reviewing. This is the first movie where I didn’t even want to watch it a second time. I got through it by reminding myself of how much I love Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson.
So let me know:
Have you seen this movie?
If you have, what did you think of it?
How many different accents did you count?
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